Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Since I knew I would have plenty more of the corn/black bean salsa from my buttermilk chicken recipe, I decided to plan that into another meal for the week. Last night, we had southwest salads, and I tried out a new baked poblano pepper ring recipe. This meal would be great for vegetarians, or you could add taco meat or chicken to the salad to bulk it up.

Just mix up your preferred amount of the ingredients. I drizzled my salad with a trio of taco sauce, low-fat three-cheese ranch dressing, and light lime vinaigrette dressing.

My apologies for the blurry photo; I took a quick one and didn't check it before the salads were already eaten. Plus, I didn't get a pic after the dressing was drizzled on, and it looked prettier then. But a blurry picture is better than none, right?

Baked Poblano Pepper Rings

I basically used this recipe for the pepper rings (except that recipe would make a huge amount - I only used 3 small peppers, and it was still far too many for the 2 of us). My crumbs were a mixture of jalapeno flavored kettle chips and a bit of the corn flake and panko crumb mix I had leftover from the buttermilk fried chicken. These were a huge mess to make, but they weren't bad. If I make them again, I will use the food processor on the crumbs instead of my ziplock/rolling pin method because finer crumbs would have made coating easier. I skipped it this time because the dishes were already piling up. I was relieved that they didn't taste very spicy at all. We dipped our rings in salsa or queso cheese, but a lot of dipping sauces could be used.

Monday, August 8, 2011

One of my favorite dishes at Bahama Breeze is the buttermilk fried chicken. I've only had it once, but it was amazing. It is not your typical fried chicken; there is so much going on in this dish. Since we hardly ever go to Bahama Breeze, I decided I really wanted to try to recreate this meal. It is a bit complicated and will give you a huge grocery list, but it's so worth it. See the bottom of this post for the inspiration photo and link to Bahama Breeze's menu. I think my version came out pretty close, even though it is baked instead of fried.

I didn't measure out everything when I was cooking, so this multi-part recipe is just to give you the basic guidelines. Please read through everything before you begin as there are so many steps, it is easy to miss something. Seriously, I completely forgot about the spinach, tomatoes, and cheese until the chicken was already cooked, but luckily that only took a couple minutes.

Hope you enjoy!

*** Basic Dinner Steps

Prepare beforehand:

Marinate the chicken the night before or morning of.

Prepare the salsa the night before or morning of.

Order of preparation for dinner:

Start the chicken.

Start the potatoes.

Make the lemon butter.

Sautee garlic for the potatoes and mash/season them.

Prepare the spinach/tomato/cheeses for the chicken.

When chicken is done, sandwich 2 pieces with the spinach/tomato/cheeses mixture.

Plate the mashed potatoes, top with sandwiched chicken, heat if needed.

Garnish with the salsa and lemon butter and eat.

Approximate recipes follow. Prepare yours according to taste, or for more exact recipes, see the inspiration recipes at the bottom of the post.

*** Recipes

Roasted Corn, Roasted Triple Pepper, and Black Bean Salsa

Note: This recipe makes a huge amount - more than enough for 4 chicken breasts and leftovers.

Ingredients:

11 ounce can corn (or frozen or fresh)

15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 jalapeno peppers, sliced in half vertically

1/2 small red bell pepper

1/2 small green bell pepper

1/4 small onion, diced

1 green onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 medium ripe tomato, diced

1-2 tbsp fresh lime juice

fresh cilantro, chopped (to taste)

dash oregano, salt, pepper, cumin

Directions:

Spray a skillet lightly with oil and heat on medium-high.

Cook corn in the skillet until lightly roasted (brown/black spots on parts of the corn). This will work best with fresh but can work with canned.

Remove corn to a separate dish.

Add a bit more oil to the skillet.

Add the onions to the skillet and cook over medium a couple of minutes until translucent.

Add the garlic and cook another minute.

Add the onions and garlic to the corn and allow to cool while preparing the rest of the salsa.

Put the bell peppers and jalapeno halves on a foiled baking sheet and broil in toaster oven or oven until skins are mostly black.

Put peppers in a sealed ziplock to steam for 10 minutes, then peel off the skins. Chop the peppers and add to the corn mixture.

Add the tomato, green onion, lime juice, cilantro, and seasonings as desired to the salsa and chill for a few hours so the flavors can blend.

Pull out to warm up somewhat when you're preheating the oven for the chicken, unless you want to serve it cold or heat it up, either way works.

Marinate the chicken overnight in just enough buttermilk to coat chicken (I used a ziplock bag).

Pound the chicken the next morning, then cut each breast in half (this could be done before initial marinating).

Add desired seasonings and sprinkle with lemon juice and massage into chicken.

Add chicken back to the buttermilk (I added a little more fresh buttermilk to the bag) to continue marinating.

When ready to cook:

Preheat oven to 400.

Get out a baking sheet and a wire baking rack that will fit inside the pan.

Spray the rack with oil (and foil the pan if you want to cut back on some of the mess).

Crush corn flakes (I put in a ziplock and use a rolling pin).

Mix corn flakes with some panko crumbs (I used about twice as many corn flake crumbs as panko) and throw in some more of your seasonings and parmesan cheese.

Put crumbs in a bowl for dipping.

Get out a second bowl for initial dipping and pour some of the buttermilk marinade in. Add a bit of egg white (probably optional) and some flour and mix well until you have a thin paste. It should be able to stick to the chicken somewhat but not be too thick. If you don't want to do this step, you can probably just put the lightly buttermilked chicken straight into the crumbs.

Dip the chicken in the buttermilk batter, then dip it in the corn flake coating. Arrange the chicken on the wire rack.

Bake the chicken until cooked through or 165 degrees. It took mine 30-35 minutes, but it will depend on the thickness of the chicken after you pound it.

Lemon Butter Sauce

Ingredients:

1 whole clove garlic, peeled

1 green onion, bottom half, whole

1 tbsp white wine

1.5 tbsp fresh lemon juice

6 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp honey

Directions:

Add the wine, lemon juice, garlic, and green onion to a small saucepan and heat over medium-high until liquid has reduced by about half.

Discard green onion and garlic.

Remove pan from heat and whisk in the butter until fully melted and blended.

Taste the sauce. If it is too sour, add a little honey or more butter to mellow it out.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

Baking potatoes, peeled and diced

Butter to taste

Milk to taste

Minced Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Boil the potatoes until fork tender, about 15-20 minutes, then drain.

In a skillet, add a little butter and cook the garlic for a minute on medium (if making the salsa the same day, you can do this after you cook the corn/onions for the salsa and refrigerate until ready to make the potatoes).

Add the garlic and butter to the potatoes and mash.

Add milk to thin mashed potatoes to desired consistency.

Season with salt and pepper.

Garnish/Assembly for Chicken

Ingredients:

Fresh Spinach, chopped

Chopped Tomato

Shredded cheese (I used monterrey jack and medium cheddar)

Salt and Pepper

Spray Butter (optional)

Directions:

Wilt the spinach in a bowl, heated in the microwave for about 30 seconds. You will need a lot more than you'll think you'd need because it cooks down so much.

Add the tomatoes to the spinach.

Season with salt and pepper and spritz a little lite butter spray on it if desired.

When chicken is cooked, top one patty with some of the spinach/tomato mixture and add cheese, then add another patty on top.

You can heat this up if the cheese isn't melting. I used plates that are oven safe, and went ahead and put the mashed potatoes and the stuffed chicken on it (leaving off the salsa) and heated it until the cheese was melted.

Then add the corn/bean salsa to your plate and drizzle the lemon butter on.

Friday, June 17, 2011

It's been a while, but since I've created the CBC Cakes website to showcase my sweet treats, I haven't felt the need to post on here as much. All of the pictures of my creations can be found in the CBC Cakes and More Photo Gallery. Still, I will try to post a few recipes here when I have time.

I adjusted the recipe quite a bit more, in an attempt to cut down on some of the fat and calories. My recipe replaces most of the oil with no-sugar-added applesauce, replaces eggs with egg beaters, and uses lite cream cheese and less butter in the frosting. I also added more spices and some brown sugar because some reviews of Paula Dean's recipe said hers were too bland, and I definitely think the added spice was a good idea. I also topped the bars with toasted pecan bits, which I really think takes this up to the next level. The final touch was grinding some cinnamon on top (from Mccormick's cinnamon grinder). I bet baking some chocolate chips or nuts in the bars would be great too.

The first time, I cut this recipe in half and baked it in an 8x8 pan. That provided 12 good sized bars, plenty for every day purposes, but they were a little on the thick size. With the full recipe, I split it between one 8x8 and one 9x13 pan which I think produced a better thickness of bars, since you get more frosting to bar ratio, and they are a little easier to eat when they are thinner. The full recipe made 32 bars (12 for small pan and 20 for large pan).

1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans (I toast these while the bars are baking for about 6 minutes)

ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9-inch (and an 8x8 baking pan for thinner bars).

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the egg beaters, sugar, brown sugar, applesauce, oil, pumpkin, and vanilla and beat on medium speed until well blended.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda.

Hand mix the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just combined. Do not overmix. Spread the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean (check the 8x8 at 20 minutes and the 9x13 at 25 minutes). Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely. I usually cut them after they've sat just a few minutes in the pan and then move them to a cookie sheet, as they cool faster this way.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese and butter and beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar, and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again.

Spread the frosting (or pipe it on with a star shaped tip like the bars shown below) on cooled pumpkin bars. Top with toasted pecans and add ground cinnamon if desired.